11-13-09 JPP practice day...

Took a vacation day today to go practice for the Sat am tourney on Priest. My crankbait bite seems to be going the way of the topwater bite that died in October. After cranking three banks that have been good to me lately, i decided to go deep, slow down, and work a jig.

I caught the nice 15 1/2 inch smallie on the first deep spot. Then I moved to a down lake island with deep water near by. I threw the jig on a small rock pile point, and the jig took off to the shallow rocks. I normally don't like setting the hook the day before a tourney, but I needed to see what quality of fish were in some of these new areas. The fish came right to the boat, and in she came. It was the nice 6 lb Largemouth here. Two casts later, and wham, a 3 lbr. I got out of here as quick as I could.

I moved around on deep stuff the rest of the day and caught two keeper spots and about five short LM's. For the day, I had 4 keepers for around 11 1/2 lbs. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

RBK

Sat, 10-31 Sat am tourney...

Blasted off by myself at 8 am from Fate Sanders. It was cloudy and cool, with a West / SW wind blowing around 10 MPH. Headed to a bluff end point right near LHSP, where I had caught a 4 lb smallie last week. The wind was on the bank good, so I opted to chunk the 300 Bandit in TN Shad. First cast- wham- a 4 1/2 lb LM. That's what I'm talking about! In the box with her. Stayed on that bank, but no other takers, so I head down under the bridge to another bluff end with a small cove adjacent to it.

I had been pounding the fish here lately, so my confidence was farily high. Unfortunatley, the fish didn't read the playbook. Nothing doing here, so I eased over to a bluff just down lake, and I only had one bump on the jig, but I didn't connect.

I proceeded to run around down lake, alternating b/w the crankbait and jig, but it just never happened. I only caught around 8 more fish all day, with one of them being a keeper spot (12 1/4").

I guess the first cast jinx is for real.

I ended up with just over 5 lbs, and ended in around 5th place for the day. The good news was that my 4 + lb fish won the big fish pot, so I got my money back, plus a little.

I'll report back next time.

RBK